Monday, 13 March 2017

Crowdrating and Businessagent.com team up - is this Premiereship or.........

They claim this will help UK equity crowdfunding. Evidence is a little sparse.

Crowdrating is run by ex City investment folk who have no real direct hands on experience of business start ups - except for Crowdrating and a few flops. It has been accused of pressing companies, already launched on their equity crowdfunding campaigns, for money to produce a good rating. A claim the company strongly denies. The CEO, Alex Heath, has no record of success in start ups and one quite large failure. His Linkedin page would appear to be ok.

Businessagent is run by Sacha John Bright, whose experience is interesting but certainly doesnt inspire any confidence he has a clue about creating a successful business. Companies House records 8 businesses that show a very different story to the one he has created on his Linkedin page. For us this is a sure sign of things not being as they seem. A variety of very small or non trading companies, 3 of which have gone bust with zero value and sizeable debts - Mr Bright has resigned from all three just before the collapse. On one occasion his Linkedin page claims he sold out to fellow founders which seems odd as the company had achieved nothing and went bust shortly afterwards.

It is exactly the sort of misinformation that we have been highlighting as harmful for the already tainted image that UK equity crowdfunding has. And unfortunately it is exactly the sort of issue the internet allows to flourish.

The 'article' highlighting this news was in the equity crowdfunding PR rag Crowdfund Insider which really should come with a Government health warning for constantly spreading alternative facts.

One good point about this merger is that this new team will certainly be able to advise on liquidations when the final whistle blows.